Into the Void
by nobleignominy
Summary: Ever prone to misfortune, Will succumbs to a virus - the same virus that supposedly killed Helen's sister. Helen/John/Nikola,  Nikola/OC,   Henry/Erika.
1. Chapter 1: Hidden Agenda

_So this would be my first Sanctuary fic. It doesn't have a real timeline because it's sort of AU in that Helen had a sister and I've shuffled some events around. Regardless it's post-Sleepers and pre-Awakenings meaning Nikola is still ordinary, much to his chagrin. Pairings will basically be Helen/John (with a bit of triangle stuff with Nikola of course), Henry/Erika, and I'm not sure what I'm doing with the rest. I will probably be switching POVs a lot as well for funsies - but Nikola is my favorite because he's such a… well, you know. Anywho, hope you enjoy! _

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Chapter 1: _Hidden Agenda_

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Nikola ground his teeth together as he watched the pulse burst in a lethal display of electricity. It was supposed to be incapacitating, benign - but Nikola's heart wasn't exactly in this. What did he care if the supposedly docile reptile died from heart failure? Rubbing his temple, he scooped up the remainder of his Chteau Margaux. He downed it irritably before turning back to the drawing board and gathering his wits about him. Erasing several figures with his hand, he replaced them with slightly lower digits. He had to account for the would-be velociraptor's incredibly thick skin, but not go so high as to burst its itty bitty heart.

"You're still working on that?"

"Oh good, I was sorely in need of a golden retriever. Would you mind grabbing me another bottle of wine from the cellar?" Nikola said, his eyes not leaving the chalkboard.

"You know if you adjust the oscillators it might not - "

"Yes, yes, it might not induce so much friction within the inner matrix - I _have_ done this before, you know," Nikola snapped.

"Geez, bite my head off, will you?" Henry replied. Nikola responded with a roll of his eyes. It wasn't that he necessarily disliked Henry, it was more a culmination of indifference that resulted in verbal abuse. His current irritation, however, was stemming from a very obvious place of depression. It had been nearly two months since he was devamped, but he still wasn't taking it very well.

"Helen and Will should be back from their mission in the next couple hours. Just got a transmission from them - which is why I'm here I might add. Not to be your whipping boy." The dog crossed his arms, looking at Nikola's handiwork. Henry fingered one of the inner coils causing it to fall to the ground and roll under the work bench. Henry offered him an apologetic look.

"Fetch," Nikola said.

"Dude! You're a magnet, just -"

"It's _copper_." Nikola looked back at his calculations while Henry groaned and dove underneath the workbench to collect the ring. "How long ago did you get the transmission from them?" He asked, replacing a few more integers on his chalkboard until they suited him. His sensitivity to Henry's presence was only exacerbated because Helen had forbade him from going with she and her protege to South America or somewhere. He had offered to go with if only to keep his mind off his current unexceptional state of being. Helen had requested he be in charge of the Sanctuary in her absence, but a request from Helen Magnus was never _really_ a request.

"About an hour ago," Henry said, voice muffled as he edged his way further under the workbench. Nikola heard a self congratulatory "Gotcha!" before the compact little man pushed himself out from under the bench. "Hey, this is silver plated!" Nikola grinned, manipulating the magnetic waves and forcing the small ring out of Henry's hand and into his own.

"Thank you," he said snidely, snapping the ring back into place. "So you got the message an hour ago and are only telling me now?"

"You've been in here for over twenty four hours, I didn't think it was all that pressing. You're not the best leader in the world you know. Kate and I had to deal with that Bonach bird man thing all on our own," Henry complained.

"Well you were just saying how you wanted a little bit more autonomy. Far be it from me to deny you that wish," Nikola said, securing another silver plated ring into place and adjusting a few wires to lessen the strength of the shock. It would have been so much simpler if he still had his powers. Nikola wasn't terribly concerned with the status of the Sanctuary - had anything truly earth shattering occurred he would have stepped in. He anticipated his stay to be incredibly temporary though.

"Henry?" Kate's voice came over the loudspeaker. Nikola did his best to block it out. The brutish young girl was his least favorite member of this latest rendition of Helen's team. He liked that she was a bit sassy, but she was hardly the most graceful thing in the place. In fact, Helen's pet Sasquatch showed more refinement than the ex mercenary.

"Yeah, Kate," came Henry's reply.

"Need you to get up here now! Will's just collapsed! Bring one of those epi pens from the infirmary, and be quick about it!" Henry was already out the door before Kate finished her sentence. Nikola had to respect the urgency with which those kids could move. He immediately decided to wait until after that urgency had died down somewhat. He had already noticed a rather obvious trend in that Will Zimmerman was _the_ most prone to punishment. Whether it was down to bad luck or the man's own incompetency was still up for discussion, however it wasn't hard to guess which Nikola would blame.

Twenty minutes later, the intercom crackled again. This time Helen's voice came through.

"Nikola, I need you. Get down to the infirmary. Now," she said. He didn't need to be asked by _her_ twice. The flash bomb equivalent of a stunner was nearly done anyway, it hadn't taken all that much tweaking once he realized where he had gone wrong. He arrived in the infirmary to find Helen giving her young protege an injection of some kind.

"Is it catching?" he asked, grimacing at Will's face. He tried to feign concern, but he just couldn't muster up the interest it would take. The boy's face was an ashen color. Blue lips and yellowed sclera completed the disgusting ensemble. But it wasn't until he began coughing up a bluish white mucus that Nikola's eyes widened. He wrenched up Will's shirt, heart racing.

"What are you doing? G-get him off me!" Will said painfully, barely putting up a struggle. He was far too weak. There were odd pale white sores popping up all over Will's body. Nikola's eyes met Helen's. Anxiety flooded his body.

"I thought I got rid of the plant. I set fire to half the Amazon. It should be gone - I… I made sure of it!" Nikola said.

"What? You've seen this before?" Will asked weakly. "Best news I've had all day - can you cure it?"

"It's not so simple, Will," Helen said looking at him gravely.

"That's putting it mildly," Nikola said, huffing and leaving the the infirmary, feeling as though he might be sick. He waited for Helen just outside the door. Their conversation needn't include the boy - it would only cause a panic for him. There was no cure for the Bosilica virus. The plant's spores ate white blood cells, thrived on bacteria - and adapted to just about any environment. Nikola and Helen had spent _decades_ developing a treatment - they had never come close.

Helen came out of the room and shut the door behind her. "He's got maybe a week of the weakness and sores left. Then the fever and seizures will kick in."

"Yes, and then loss of sensory organs, kidney failure - I know all the lyrics to this one, Helen," he said, clenching his jaw. "Where the hell did you crazy kids end up?"

"Outside of Bosnia. One of the people keeping the Ukoback keeps the fertilized spores as insurance. Steal the creature, get dusted with the stuff. I've no idea how she got a hold of it," Helen said. The spores of the Bosilica plant are very nearly invisible. They would have appeared as nothing more than your run of the mill dust motes. Harmless. Nikola had built something which would detect the spores, but he had spent quite a while making certain that the plant was extinct rendering the instrument useless. Besides that, the plant was indigenous only to the southern portion of the Amazon rainforest. It had a symbiotic relationship with a dozen other indigenous species of the region and couldn't grow without them.

"Please tell me you killed the bitch," Nikola said. Helen raised an eyebrow at him. "No, of course not. That would be mean. Need I remind you that he _is_ going to die."

"No, we're not going to let that happen, Nikola."

"Don't you think I've _tried_? For longer than you or Gregory ever bothered -"

"Don't you dare say that, Nikola. She was _my_ sister," Helen said, anger rising.

"Yes, and my _wife_," Nikola said, voice wavering slightly. Helen's jaw clenched and they held each other's gaze for a moment. "He's going to die. Two months - at the most."

"Nikola we have resources we didn't used to-"

"Do you think the only thing I've been doing in my spare time is turning idiot teenagers into faux vampires and making mostly benign weapons for you? I've tried everything I can think of to kill that virus. Nothing works! Radiation, magic serums, combat phages - everything short of throwing the host into an acid bath - which, come to think of it, it would probably enjoy that," Nikola said, voice rising.

"Are you quite finished?" Helen asked and Nikola bristled. "You're forgetting about Praxis. They've got technology that far surpasses even anything you could dream up," Helen said.

"Oh yes, how could I forget Shambala - the place I wasn't invited to see," Nikola replied, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice.

"You are such a child," she berated him. Nikola ignored it as he began thinking of the possibilities. Suppose they _did_ have something to combat the effects of the virus? Hell, for all they knew the Bosilica plant originated down in that hellhole.

"What about the mandated radio silence that harpy instilled upon you, what's her name," Nikola said, snapping his fingers, signaling for Helen to fill in the blank.

"Ranna," Helen said. "I'm certain Henry can get her a message. She wouldn't simply ignore it if it was an emergency." She paused, tilting her head at him in that accusing way she reserved only for him. "Why do you seem so excited by the idea? We won't get a free pass to visit again if that's what you're hoping for."

"I know, that's not important. I've got to get to the lab, tell Fido to get on that message," Nikola said, voice suddenly far away. His mind was clicking away with something that had been rather foreign to him these past months: hope.

"Nikola," Helen said sharply.

"Don't you see Helen? We've got to save your kept boy, don't we? I'm very happy that he's got a better chance than Eleanor," Nikola said, almost laughing at the sentence. Of course he didn't actually care about Will. Certainly he didn't want the boy to die - but that wasn't the point.

"You're thinking of doing something rash, aren't you? Adam's time travel machine doesn't work - you won't be able to go back and save Eleanor if all of this turns out," Helen said, her mind working more slowly than usual. Of course he wasn't' thinking of a damn time machine - and certainly not something built by that lunatic. He didn't need to.

"I wouldn't need to do that, Helen. I've thought this through, don't you see?" He knew she didn't, but he was feeling positively giddy at the possibilities. "I've got arrangements to make. You tell me how all of this saving-the-shrink-from-a-debilitating-condition for the thousandth time turns out."

####

Helen watched Nikola go and suddenly felt exhausted. His sudden glee had left her feeling entirely unsettled, but she couldn't worry about him now. Not with Will in his current condition. She swallowed hard, beginning the difficult process of compartmentalization. Regardless of the treatments Praxis may or may not have to offer, she needed to begin pulling out research. Files on the disease which she hadn't opened in God, what had it been? Twenty years at least. Perhaps longer.

"So Doc, what's the verdict? How are we gonna fix him?" Henry asked hopefully. Helen hadn't been able to bring herself to tell them what it was exactly they were dealing with.

"Yeah, he is _not_ looking pretty in there," Kate added, watching as the Big Guy mopped at Will's forehead. Helen crossed her arms, clenching her jaw as she tried to decide how much to tell them. The idea of instilling hopelessness in Will was something she wanted to avoid - at least not until she could get in touch with Ranna.

"You said you'd encountered this before, right, Doc?" Henry pressed.

"Yes. Henry I need you to work on getting in touch with Ranna immediately," Helen said.

"I take it a bit of tylenol's not going to do the trick then?" Kate said.

"No, I'll be in the lab. Kate you'll need to deal with the Ukoback. Get the Big Guy to help you if you need it - then assist Henry. That message should be our first priority right now," Helen said. Both of them nodded and went to tend to their tasks.

Helen stood there for a moment, looking in on Will. Her stomach was tied in knots as she recalled her sister in the same position. But Eleanor had refused to lie still, she'd insisted on being in the lab right until the end. Helen had been sure it had quickened the pace of the illness, but Eleanor had always been fiercely stubborn. In the end all she'd had was her denial - the disease had still taken her.

Before she headed to the lab, Helen made her way to her office in hopes of unearthing her files on Eleanor's case. She would need to review everything she had already learn - she didn't have time to make repeated mistakes. Helen had encountered at least half a dozen cases of the Bosilica virus in her life time, but nothing like what had happened to Will. She had never heard of someone managing to use it as a weapon - it was simply too volatile, too unpredictable. Why the hell the woman, Risiki Landau, had endeavored to protect a _Ukoback_ with the spores was beyond her. Ukobacks were impish creatures which survived on burning coals and starting small inconvenient forest fires. They were not ordinary, but they didn't fetch much on the black market, either. She made a mental note to do a thorough work up on the beast as soon as she had Will sorted. Part of her didn't wonder if the Ukoback had something to do with it.

There were far too many variables to juggle within this incident for Helen's liking. As she entered her office, she was greeted with the fresh scent of lemon and rain. Big Guy had been in to clean. She saw that he'd even left her a cup of tea. She would have been warmed by this gesture if she wasn't feeling so stressed.

Grabbing a small rounded key from a small teak tinderbox on her sideboard, she went around to the wardrobe on the opposite side of the room which she had had refitted to operate as a more aesthetically pleasing file cabinet. Unlocking it with a key, she searched through the seemingly endless amount of files for those on the Bosilica virus.

As she searched, her blood pressure began to rise as she realized the files were not there. "Nikola," she muttered angrily as she slammed the door shut.

As if she really had summoned him, the former vampire appeared at her door carrying a box. "I may have borrowed these a couple weeks, well, years ago," Nikola said, putting the box down on her desk.

"I thought you had left," Helen said, fingering through the box after she had removed the lid. "And where's Eleanor's particular case file? This is just my findings on later cases."

"Well, that one's not here exactly," Nikola said. Helen's jaw clenched.

"So you stole it."

"Borrowed. I had every intention of giving it back to you. At some point," Nikola replied, waving her off with a flick of his wrist. "I'll be out of touch for a few days by the way."

"Now? You're leaving _now_? I may need your help if Praxis ends up being a dead end, Nikola!"

"Yes, but as you keep telling me - I'm a _physicist_ and a glorified electrician, what could I possibly bring to the table?"

She could not believe how childish he was being now. He knew how important this was to her and he was just going to leave her there. Just like he did when Eleanor died. She realized it was hard for him, but all they had was each other. John, James, Nigel… everyone was gone.

"Nikola -"

"I'll be _back_, Helen. It's just a few days. I'll bring Ellie's file back with me," Nikola said, voice softening as he put a hand on her shoulder. She hated when he did that. He was so changeable, one minute a cold, unfeeling bastard - the next he was the sweetest person in the world. At least in his own way. And, she supposed, only towards her.

"Two days, Nikola," Helen said.

"We'll see," he replied.

"_Nikola_."

"_Helen._"

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_Hope you enjoyed, I'd love to hear your thoughts!_


	2. Chapter 2: Frozen

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Chapter 2: _Frozen_

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"Come on, baby, don't die on me now," Henry said, stroking his computer screen lovingly as he implored it to send the transmission. In the middle of all the chaos brought on by Will's virus, Henry's entire computer mainframe had been brought down. It had taken him an entire day to reboot the whole thing and once he had, he hadn't managed to find even the smallest trace of interference. It had been made to look like the meltdown was all mechanical, but Henry would be damned if he was going to believe that. _He'd_ built the network from the ground up - he would have known if that kind of issue would arise.

"Do you think Tesla did something to it? He did leave at an awfully conspicuous time," Kate had asked. Henry had considered that as well, but whatever the guy's faults might be Henry didn't think Tesla would do anything to harm the Sanctuary. His agenda was world domination, and he was certainly a criminal mastermind, but that soft spot he had for Magnus would keep him from doing anything _this _sinister. Besides, Henry thought Tesla sorta kinda reluctantly liked him anyway.

Due to the unfortunate breach to the mainframe, it had taken Henry much longer than anticipated to work out how to make contact to Hollow Earth, but he'd figured it out. It would have been nice to have some help. He supposed he'd grown a bit lazy during Tesla's stay - the man was a genius and very often usurped Henry's responsibilities in the lab. In a way Henry sort of liked that though, it meant he was sent into the field more often.

The power it was taking to get the transmission through the lodestone surrounding Hollow Earth was ridiculous - not to mention it had taken him hours to figure out the correct frequency, but in the end he'd managed. By the skin of his teeth, as always. However _now_ his computer kept crashing as if there was something still interfering. Magnus had told him to work around it - the message to Hollow Earth was more important.

Henry realized Magnus was stressed to the max right now, but he personally felt that this breach to the network was probably a bit more pressing. But then Henry was optimistic about Will's condition - it was optimism built on ignorance, of course, but still.

He heard the door open and turned to see Biggie and Magnus come up behind him. "Henry, you said you managed to get the transmission out?"

"Yeah, Doc, just waiting on a reply," Henry said, nodding and gesturing to the screen beside him. "Any luck with Will?"

"No. His body keeps rejecting everything I give him. He's already beginning to move into the second stage of the illness," Magnus said. She was always so good at hiding her anxiety, but Henry could see it there in her eyes. Dark rings were just peaking out underneath the make up. He could smell that she hadn't showered in the past two days, either - though she still managed to look as though she had. The nose knows, though.

"Well, you'll figure it out," Henry assured her. Magnus smiled wearily at him. Henry's gaze fell back on the computer monitor. Tapping the side of it, as if that might quicken its pace, he said, "As soon as this goes through you should be able to continue the correspondence with Ranna on your own - I've still got to figure out what exactly caused this mess in the first place."

Biggie grunted, giving Magnus a stern look. "Yes, I know," she started, looking back at Henry. "He's upset because I've put off doing a thorough scan of the Ukoback. The poor thing's startled enough as it is. Ukobacks are very fragile creatures mentally - push them too far and they become suicidal."

"You think that little thing brought something in with it?" Henry asked.

"It's a possibility. The preliminary scans have shown nothing out of the ordinary - but then you said the same of the network, so I'm not sure what's going on," Magnus said.

"I also got a call from Declan's IT guy, Brady - he says there were some odd spikes in the London Sanctuary's network," Henry said. He hadn't really wanted to stress Magnus out any more than necessary, but she had to know.

"Do you think it's connected?" Big Guy said.

"It happened around the same time our mainframe went down - so possibly. I'm trying to coordinate with other Sanctuaries now to see if theirs have spiked at all," Henry said, suddenly realizing how very full his plate had become. A dull throbbing started behind his eyes. Rubbing his temple, his eyes widened as he realized a message from Hollow Earth had finally come through:

"Knowledge of virus will not help you. We are not willing to to appropriate treatment. Cease contact."

Henry bit the inside of his cheek a bit too hard as he read that and tasted blood. "Those snobby bastards. This means they know how to help but they won't! After all we did for them?" Magnus's face was illegible, but Henry knew she must be fuming. Big Guy put a hand on her shoulder.

"No, no. This isn't over. Henry, please send them another message. Tell them it's an emergency, plead with them," she said firmly, anger seeping subtly into her tone. The way she said it made Henry believe that if they refused - she'd be going in after them. He didn't want to think what that might mean. Regardless, Henry knew that if there was one person in the world whose bad side you didn't want to be on - it would be Helen Magnus.

####

Will's breathing was shallow, he was light headed, and there was a constant stream of light blue mucus dripping down his throat. Helen had warned him this was only the first stage of the illness. In a few days time he would regain his strength, but fever would claim him. Possibly seizures and dementia. There was a laundry list of impossibly inconvenient symptoms that made his head spin - and all this because he breathed in a few spores. Life was good.

Magnus came in then, and went to check that his IV was still functioning. He noticed that she wasn't meeting his eyes, that she was doing unnecessary, even routine things just to appear busy. She had the look of a woman who was running out of options - and that didn't bode well for him. He'd never seen her this way - so worried. Helen Magnus generally had an _unending_ supply of ideas in her back pocket, but here she was stalling.

"Did Henry manage to get that message through? Any word on what caused the network to crash?" Will asked.

"Yes and no," she said shortly.

"You gotta give me more than that, Magnus. I'm dyin' here," he said, pausing. "And I mean that both literally and metaphorically." He managed to force a smile, which she reluctantly returned, still not meeting his eyes.

"Praxis is being uncooperative - but that much I expected. Henry hasn't managed to find the time to look into the crash just yet, but that's on his immediate to-do list."

"Any word on prospective treatments? You've only tried like two different things and it's been nearly a week," he asked. Will had been made aware that Magnus had come into contact with the virus before, but she had neglected to inform him of just how hopeless his case was - as though she were waiting for a miracle. The first couple days he'd been a bit delirious, but the medication she'd been giving him to treat the symptoms had helped him focus. Now he realized how ridden with anxiety she was. That anxiety was fast becoming contagious, too.

"I'm working on several new ideas that look promising," she said, still not meeting his eyes as she tapped the IV once more.

"Would you stop with the bullshit, Magnus? We both know things are looking grim. I want the truth. You've dealt with this virus before - it hasn't gone well," Will stated, looking at her gravely. She finally met his eyes and smiled sadly, hesitating with her reply. His dulled blue eyes implored her for answers.

"You remember I told you I had a sister?"

"Yes, Eleanor Magnus. She was a chemist, she helped you and the rest of your merry band with all your insane shenanigans way back when," Will said, nodding. He didn't know much of Eleanor. Magnus mentioned her here and there, but not enough to string a coherent history together. What she did say made the woman sound like a real handful though.

Magnus took a seat on the bed next to him, pausing again as though picking and choosing what she might reveal to him. "Eleanor Tesla, actually."

Will's eyes narrowed. "You are _kidding_ me."

"Oh no, I'm quite serious. She didn't really want to take his name, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction - but that was far too forward thinking for the era and their financials wouldn't allow it," she said, smiling fondly at the memory as she nodded. Will waited patiently for her to continue. Every time he thought he understood Magnus, something about her past would jump out and scare the hell out of him. He really needed to put more effort into snooping around her office when she was gone.

"Seventy five years ago she was looking into a new subspecies of plant called Triffiditium. It's medicinal properties within some of the Amazonian tribes were unheard of in the civilized world and she wanted to cultivate and study it. Instead she encountered the Bosilica plant, which seems to have a symbiotic relationship with Triffiditium - one cannot grow without the other, making it very difficult to successfully gather either plant," Magnus started.

Will swallowed. He saw where this was going. He had always assumed that Eleanor had been killed by some man eating beast of some kind.

"It was lucky that James had gone with her on this little expedition - otherwise she may not have made it back. She spent most of the rest of her life in the lab with me while we tried to concoct some method of treatment - nothing worked."

"It killed her," Will finished. Now he could see why Magnus had such a difficult time talking about her. Medicine was _her_ field.

"She was a brilliant chemist, with a knowledge of the elements that I could not even begin to keep up with. Between her, Nikola, and I working around the clock looking for a miracle cure… we should have been able to find _something._ After she died, we didn't stop searching… Nikola went rampaging through the Amazon trying to exterminate the plant entirely… I'm sorry I don't have better news, Will." She squeezed his hand and Will realized that tears had welled up in her eyes.

"Seventy five years ago, but that means she would have been…" Will pressed, trying not to focus on what her previous sentence meant for his condition.

"She would have been eighty. Eleanor also partook of the source blood experiment. She suffered very much the same abnormality that I did when I was subjected to the source blood - unnatural long life. Though she was unknowingly pregnant at the time and got a little something _extra_."

"Wait, she was pregnant? With…"

"Nikola's only son. Yes. After he went through his own transformation, Nikola was rendered sterile. Thomas was born healthy and mostly normal - I believe that was much to Nikola's dismay, though he never said," Magnus said. "But my nephew was killed during the first World War. Thomas was as pigheaded as you can imagine, given his parents - he insisted on entering the war. I think Nikola locked him up in a cupboard to avoid the whole thing, but, unsurprisingly, he got out."

"What do you mean mostly normal? And what about that extra ability that Eleanor got?" Will asked. He was grateful to be able to ask these questions, to keep his mind off his impending doom. A small part of him was still hopeful that Praxis would be able to help.

"Hey, Doc! I need you for a second," came Henry's voice, muffled through Magnus's lab coat.

She fished the com system out of her lab coat and put it to her mouth. "I'm on my way Henry." Turning back to Will, she smiled. "We'll figure this out Will. We have so many more resources now than we used to… We'll find a way." He got the feeling she was trying to reassure herself more than him at this point and he shifted underneath his blankets as a chill caught him.

"Hey, I still have more questions since you're feeling so forthcoming - story time isn't over just because Henry calls you away," Will insisted.

"We'll finish our discussion later, I promise," she said, turning to leave.

"You bet we will!" he called after her. He heaved a heavy sigh and let himself fall back into the pillows. He tried to swallow again, but the slick trail of mucus running down his throat made it difficult. He didn't dare look at a mirror, Big Guy had already informed him he looked like hell. For now he was just trying his best to not let himself be overtaken by fear. It had only been a couple days. Magnus told him he had at least a couple months - maybe more with the treatment and bed rest. He wished he could find the energy to sneak into her lab and look at the files.

Magnus may have been forthcoming with information on her sister, but she still hadn't told him much about the illness he was suffering from. She'd shone light on one thing and put him safely in the dark on everything else.

####

"What is it, Henry?" Magnus asked, crossing her arms.

"Ah, you know how I may have told Erika that she could come for a visit… before all this hell came raining down on our heads? I was supposed to pick her up at the airport - like now," Henry said carefully. He knew this was probably the worst time _in the world_ for him to be asking her for a couple hours off, but his brain was on the fritz and he hadn't slept in nearly 48 hours as it was.

"Did you send a transmission back to Praxis?"

"Yes, but they haven't replied. They ought to have by now. I don't know if that means they're simply ignoring us and hoping we'll go away or if I did something wrong or what," Henry said, rubbing his eyes as he stared at the computer screen again. His lap was full of wires - the guts of one of his hard drives and he knew he must look like a crazy person at this point.

"And have you made any headway with the breach?"

"Not much. I mean I'm looking at everything piece by piece to see what I could have missed - but nothing's showing up," he said, making a display of the mess in his lap. She looked to be mulling all of this over.

"Now's really not the best time for your girlfriend to be here, Henry," she said. "With Will in his current condition, the breach - I need your focus here not on romance."

"Doc, I gotta be honest here. I'm in over my head and without Tesla, I'm not getting much help. I've been trying to coordinate with the other Sanctuaries but that's not always easy. Erika's good with this kind of stuff, she'd probably be a huge help," he told her. Part of what he loved about Erika was how her interests actually _did_ overlap with his. There were so few women out there that knew what a T4 modulated transistor was. Of course that would probably turn out to be as much of a distraction as it was a help, but he wasn't going to tell Magnus what she already knew.

"Fine. But Henry, pick her up and come straight back here. Now's not the time for fun," Magnus said.

"Gotcha," he said, nodding. "Also, Doc, I rigged up the Praxis transmission so that it would also go to your personal computer if they ever do reply."

"Good. I'll have to pay them a visit in a couple of days if they don't, regardless," she said. Henry nodded. The Magnus Resolve was a pretty damn comforting thing in Henry's opinion. As Magnus left his office, his phone vibrated with a text from Erika:

"I've just landed, are you still able to pick me up or should I call a cab?"

He sent her a text responding with a quick "On my way," to which responded with:

"Can you please bring the van? I've got a surprise." Henry frowned at that. He didn't know what sort of a surprise she might need the van for and he wasn't sure he liked the idea. In any case, he responded in the affirmative. His stomach was knotted into ropes for any number of reasons. He was stressed, anxious, and excited all at once.

Forty five minutes later, Henry found himself parking at the air port. He went to find Erika's flight and was greeted by a surly clerk who informed him that flight 811 from London hadn't landed yet, but were scheduled to within the hour.

"What?" Henry asked, dumbfounded. The clerk repeated himself irritably.

"But I just got a text from my girlfriend saying she had landed, are you sure? Flight 811?" Henry's brain must be malfunctioning or something. He ran a hand through his short cropped hair which only made it stick up in odd angles.

"I don't know what to tell you, sir. It should be landing soon, feel free to wait," the clerk said. His tone was very patronizing and Henry was already in a foul mood. His phone vibrated again.

"By baggage claim, Fido. Heel," it read, this time from an unknown caller. Henry's jaw clenched as he realized what that soulless bastard had done. When the hell had he gotten the chance to clone Erika's phone? His head began to throb and he wondered why he had been looking forward to Tesla's return. He couldn't help it - the man had invented alternating current for christ's sake.

Stumbling his way to baggage claim, Henry found Tesla there wearing one of his trade mark shit-eating grins. "So good of you to make it. You brought the van like I asked, correct?"

"How the hell did you know about Erika?" Henry asked.

"I recalled you mentioning an impending visit - it turned out to suit the timing of my arrival. Besides, I need your Sanctuary credentials to get something out of customs. Don't worry, your girlfriend is welcome to sit in my lap on the way home," he had the audacity to say as if this was all the most normal thing in the world. Henry's mind could not even begin to _guess_ what the hell Tesla was up to.

"What could you possibly need the van for? What have you done?" Henry asked.

"Nothing that your sleep deprived brain could even begin to comprehend right now. Will you please just save the questions for later? Flight 811 should be arriving soon, and wouldn't you rather all this be sorted with so that you can focus on telling dearest Erika that her weekend here won't be the romantic getaway she imagined?" Tesla said, already heading towards customs and expecting Henry to follow. Of course Henry _did_ follow.

"Did you have anything to do with the network crash a couple days ago?" Tesla paused mid stride for a moment and frowned.

"Why on Earth would I crash the network?"

"See! That's what I said."

"Then why did you bother asking me? I take it you don't know what happened yet? I heard there was some sort of breach, but the Italian Sanctuary is never very open with these sorts of things," Tesla said, continuing towards customs. Henry quickened his pace to keep up, suddenly feeling exhausted. He need some sort of energy drink right now. Really he needed sleep, but at this point he seriously doubted anything of the sort was going to happen.

"Italy? Why were you in Italy?" Henry asked.

"A myriad of reasons. I told you, don't ask me questions right now. Did you get in touch with Praxis?" Tesla inquired.

"Yes. Well, sort of. They were unhelpful as always. Told us to cease transmission," Henry said.

"Meaning Helen is probably already planning some sort of visit?"

"Probably," Henry said.

"Excellent," Tesla said, grinning. The man had always had a really unsettling smile, but for some reason this one was _particularly_ unsettling. He pulled out his cell phone to send warning to Magnus that Tesla was back and being secretive as hell, but Tesla grabbed it from him.

"No, no. We're not reporting this in to mother, right now," Tesla told him. He had nearly pocketed the phone when it buzzed. Tesla clicked open the phone.

"Your girlfriend will be arriving shortly. And oh, she's _so_ excited to see you. Look, see there? Hugs and kisses!" Tesla said, showing Henry the x's and o's Erika had signed the text with. Henry tried to grab the phone back, but Tesla held it out of reach. "Look, I texted her see you soon. Help me with customs and loading, and I'll give this back."

"What, am I a hostage now?"

"No. You're a friend helping a friend out in his time of need." Henry scowled.

Twenty minutes later Henry was helping Tesla load a large aluminum box (which most closely resembled some sort of coffin) into the back of the van. He started fumbling with the locks on the box to sneak a peak inside, but Tesla caught him. "I think you ought to go find your girlfriend, don't you?" Tesla handed him his phone back. Henry saw that he'd deleted every contact from the list except Tesla's and Erika's.

"Aw, man, seriously dude?" Henry groaned.

"It's on a backup. I don't need you getting in touch with Helen right yet," he said. "Go get Erika and then we can go." Tesla was strapping the box, which Henry was fairly certain was some sort of refrigerated storage unit, in tightly and securely. Ever since they had obtained the box, Tesla had been incredibly serious - in such a way that Henry had never seen him. It was more unnerving than usual.

Henry texted Erika to see where she was waiting, but he spotted her as soon as he'd sent it. Dressed in a pair of jeans that made her legs look as though they went on for miles and a scoop necked black top, Erika was a sight for sore eyes. Suddenly all the worry and anxiety he'd been feeling was completely gone, replaced with only excitement.

"It's so good to see you!" she said in her crisp English accent as she threw her arms around his neck. He had half expected the reunion to be awkward as they hadn't seen each other in months, but he felt nothing but comfortable. He squeezed her tight, kissing her gently on the mouth.

"God I've missed you. I have to warn you though, things might be a bit… hectic to say the least when we get back to the Sanctuary," Henry told her, taking her bag from her to carry.

"It's alright. Things are nothing short of exciting at a Sanctuary, I've grown used to it. And, if I'm being honest, rather fond of it," she said, grinning. Erika had been working at the London Sanctuary on and off for the past several months. He hated to have her come for a visit only to be forced to work, but he was hoping she would be able to take it in stride. If he knew her at all, she could handle it easily.

Erika wrapped an arm around his and he led the way back to where he hoped Tesla was still loading the van. Half of him anticipated that evasive bastard might drive off and leave them stranded. To his surprise, though, the van was right where they'd left it - Tesla was shutting the back doors.

"And who's this?" Erika asked.

"Nikola Tesla, my dear. Wonderful to finally meet you," Tesla said with a flourish. Henry winced at the bravado.

"Nikola Tesla as in…" Erika said.

"Yes, _the_ Nikola Tesla. Please don't be impressed, it goes to his head. I speak from experience here," Henry insisted. Erika's face, however, had already lit up with the same excitement that Henry himself had experienced upon first meeting the tech legend. Needless to say, upon further interaction with Tesla the excitement diminished somewhat - but Henry would always be a fanboy, no matter that he knew better.

"But… but how is this possible?" Erika asked.

"I'll fill you in when we get back to the Sanctuary," Henry insisted, opening up the front seat for her. Tesla had already slipped into the back to sit with his giant box. Henry figured that meant he was still driving, which surprised him. But clearly Tesla was very keen on keeping the box safe.

"Oh, do we have another unexpected guest back there?" Erika asked.

"I have no idea. Captain Cryptic over here won't tell me," Henry said, climbing into the driver's seat of the van. Tesla didn't answer, he seemed to be typing something into a computerized screen that Henry hadn't noticed before on a side panel of the box. "Tesla?"

"What? Oh right, yes," Tesla muttered, his mind clearly elsewhere.

Henry looked back at Erika apologetically. "He gets that way occasionally - it's really best to ignore him." He started the engine, noting that the traffic at the airport was horribly congested this time of day and they were going to have a bitch of a time making their way out.

"He does seem very preoccupied. You mentioned things being hectic at the Sanctuary? Does it have anything to do with the breach of the network?" Erika asked.

"How do you know about that?" Henry asked.

"I spoke to Brady briefly before I left. He spoke of some sort of spike in the default frequencies. He was far too paranoid to let me see the scans, though - you know how he gets," Erika said.

"That I do. I barely managed to get him to send them to me," Henry said.

"Did you figure out what caused them?" Erika asked.

"Not yet. I was hoping a fresh pair of eyes might help. I haven't caught a break in the past three days," Henry said. "Between the breach, Will's condition, and the usual Sanctuary hijinks still prevailing I've been hard pressed to find time to sleep let alone anything else."

"Will's ill?" Erika asked.

"Yeah. The Doc's having a bitch of a time fixing him, too," Henry said. "Didn't help that this guy decided to leave in the middle of all of it." Henry jerked his thumb back at Tesla.

"Some things are more important than your silly little network, Fido," Tesla snapped suddenly. "Drive faster please. The power source is dying quicker than I expected." Henry frowned and glanced at Tesla in the rear view mirror. The man's face was hard and expressionless. He exchanged glances with Erika, who looked a bit uncomfortable.

"If you don't tell me what's in that box, I'll pull over," Henry said.

"Ellie - my wife, is in the box. If you don't drive faster she'll thaw out and I will be _extremely_ displeased," Tesla said.

##

_Hope you enjoyed Chapter 2, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for reading!_


	3. Chapter 3: Solace

Chapter 3: _Solace_

_##_

Nikola watched, expressionless, as Helen entered her office behind him. She shut the door, but kept her hand on the knob for a moment before turning around to face him. He knew very well how angry she would be about his endeavors to keep Eleanor alive, and part of him was sorry for keeping it from her - but she never would have allowed it had she known.

"Helen I -" he began, but she put a hand up, closing the distance between them.

"No, don't even begin to apologize. Nikola, of all the - I can't believe _you_ would have done this to her. She would have never -" Helen seemed surprisingly speechless. Her jaw clenched and she slapped him twice, _hard_. His cheek still stinging, they glared at each other for another moment before she turned around as if looking at him might cause her to do something she'd regret. He recalled that he _was_ human currently - which meant she could kill him fairly easily if she really wanted to. He imagined she did.

"I had a way to save her and I took it, you can't expect me to feel guilty about that," Nikola said.

"No, no, you must have known it were wrong or else you would have told someone. Tell me, did you even _ask_ her permission?" Helen said.

Nikola's jaw clenched as he remembered the night he'd told Eleanor about the cryochamber he'd built, how he could freeze her until they found a cure. He thought it might take six months, another year at the most. Then he'd wake her up, kill the virus, and things could carry on as they always had. Eleanor had rejected the idea, but she'd coveted mortality ever since they'd lost Tommy.

"She wasn't in her right mind at the time," he said a bit quietly.

"This was selfishness beyond what I thought even _you_ were capable of, Nikola."

"You give me far too much credit then, Helen," he said. "How could you and Gregory have just given up on her? After all we had accomplished, you just let her slip away to a damn house plant!"

"You've been hoarding her as if some miracle cure was always right around the corner. People _die_, Nikola, it's natural," Helen said, her voice cracking. Nikola snorted, shaking his head.

"Why don't you tell that to your dapper young assistant then? Tell him "Oh, sorry, William - life's short, get a helmet.' How well would that go over?" he said bitterly. It was true that he'd always held an unfounded grudge against Helen, but even more so Gregory. He always thought that they hadn't tried hard enough, that they hadn't devoted enough sleepless nights to researching some sort of treatment. He'd found it easier to blame everyone else. Occasionally he even blamed Eleanor - if she wasn't so damn curious, she would never have been that deep in the rainforest.

Helen paused for a moment, looking at Nikola angrily. Nikola, however, was already beginning to reign in his anger. He found it easier to do as a human, actually. Something about being a vampire had always managed to feed his emotions - particularly the volatile ones. Fortunately he'd always been a terribly logical being - quite able to handle himself emotionally. He was a singularly well-adjusted individual, or so he'd always insisted. He shifted towards Helen's sidebar, and, noting the lack of wine, he uncorked her scotch, pouring two glasses.

"You really don't care about the repercussions this will probably have, do you?" Helen said, watching him with a look of disgust.

"I believe that the risk I took will be worth it," Nikola said, handing her a glass. She took it reluctantly. He could see that her anger was beginning to wane - at least to a dull throb which she would push aside to be dealt with at a later date. Nikola was far too used to playing out this song and dance with Helen to be remotely surprised. He suspected that excitement was beginning to bubble up inside her anyway, replacing the anxiety. After all, Helen was afflicted with the same maddening curiosity the rest of them suffered.

"The weekend getaway to Venice," Helen said suddenly.

Nikola downed the scotch in one go before pouring himself another. He looked at her carefully. She put the glass down on the table and took a seat on the couch as she began putting together the events that took place before Eleanor's "death."

"You swept in and decided to give her one last hurrah. At least that was what you played it off as. I remember thinking it tragically sweet," she shook her head, repulsed.

"We did exactly what I said we did. Took in the sights, saved a cephalopod that was trapped in the Venetian canals, and -"

"Poured my dying sister into an obscure and unreliable cryochamber against her will," Helen finished.

"Well when you say it like that it sounds downright villainous," Nikola said.

"Does it even work? She's probably a vegetable, Nikola -"

"Of course it works. I've fine tuned it perfectly. As soon as we get the cure, I'll defrost her and she'll be right as rain. I have done regular scans and check ups - she's healthy. Except for the debilitating disease she's the _picture_ of health," Nikola said, waving away Helen's arguments. "Think of it, Helen. She was as good as dead, there was nothing to lose - everything to gain."

Helen's frown deepened.

"Besides, had it not been for her genetic quirk of immortality, it would have never been a viable option. I still would have had to find a way to keep her from aging, but with that taken care of for me, the only thing left to do was to freeze the virus, keeping it from doing further damage to her organs," Nikola continued, as if to further illustrate the genius of it all.

He had spent countless years perfecting Eleanor's cryochamber, aligning it to suit her needs perfectly. She laid in perfect stasis, unaware of the pain that had plagued her for weeks, unable to die or sleep or dream. Nikola was aware it was no way to exist, but he wasn't going to give up hope. Neither he nor Ellie had been god-fearing people, they didn't believe in a hereafter. There was this one life, this one chance - and he wasn't going to allow her to miss out.

Helen only shook her head at him disbelievingly, he could tell she was still trying to process all of this information. He assumed Helen was partially upset because she had never figured it out. But how could she? Ellie left him with a perfectly good lie to tell the Magnuses - she had always wanted to be cremated so Nikola had brought them a nice urn filled with the remains of some other poor schlub. Helen had then spread the ashes into the sea as Eleanor would have wanted. The story wrote itself.

"Let's say this all goes according to plan and we _do_ miraculously come up with a cure for the Bosilica virus - how pleased do you think she'll be when she wakes up?"

Nikola pursed his lips. To be honest he'd grown more and more wary of what Eleanor might do when she woke up. Towards the end she'd been unconscious more often than not - not to mention completely blind and nearly deaf, it had been very easy to slip her into the cryochamber. Once she regained her strength and wits, she was going to be _difficult_ to say the least.

"Ellie can hate me all she wants, at least she'll be alive," he said, shrugging. "You haven't been in touch with Praxis while I was gone, have you?"

####

"And you checked the backup drives?" Henry asked as he watched Erika screw the back of his hard drive back together.

"'s clean - whatever this thing was, it's gone," Erika said, nodding and putting the screwdriver back down on his desk. "But it's weird - it's almost like everything's too clean. I'm sure you keep a clean ship, but Henry all your drives are completely scrubbed of any sort of temporary files, cookies, etcetera. Is that normal?"

Henry frowned, wondering how he could have missed that. He'd been running scans for malware, spyware, viruses, stray files - but he'd never thought to look for what _wasn't_ there. "So whatever it was, it got in and got out in the space of forty five seconds _and_ cleaned up after itself?" Henry said. "Damn, whatever this was is good. Honestly, if I weren't so annoyed right now I'd pause to be impressed."

"It looks like a bomb went off in here," Kate said, coming in to Henry's work room. She had to step carefully in order to avoid stepping on all the stray wires. He and Erika had taken apart every bit of electronic equipment they could find - they'd even sent Big Guy and Kate on a dusting spree to look for bugs that might have been able to send out some sort of pulse - but they'd turned up nothing. "Any news?"

"Not really," Erika said, sighing as she gathered an armful of wires to begin putting another console back together. She'd been a godsend. Hadn't complained once. he seriously didn't know how he'd coped before. He was constantly buried in this mess with zero help. He should have complained before - though he supposed the idea of having someone else in his domain hadn't sounded very attractive. Granted, he'd always pictured Helen getting him some overweight, pizza faced kid in glasses.

"Great. Magnus and Tesla are planning a trip to Hollow Earth for tomorrow - as soon as Tesla can make himself a duplicate of one of those shield bracelet doohickeys," Kate said.

"You mean she hasn't murdered him yet?" Henry asked. He had nearly swerved off the road when Tesla told him what was inside that box.

Kate grinned. "I was surprised, too."

"Has anyone… peaked inside yet?" Erika surprised him by asking. Henry looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I don't know, I find the whole thing horribly romantic. I was curious," she said, shrugging.

"Romantic? The dude froze his wife for seventy plus years and is exploiting Will's illness in order to cure her," Kate said. "Then he didn't even have the decency to inform Magnus about it. He's a grade A douche bag if you ask me."

"I suppose," Erika said. "But still, you have to appreciate that sort of conviction." Henry found himself agreeing, at least on some level.

"The guy was faced with an impossible choice - but he had the means to work around it. I dunno, Kate, wouldn't you go to the ends of the Earth for someone you loved?" Henry said, glancing briefly at Erika and then averting his gaze sheepishly. He knew she saw him when she grinned, blushing slightly. Kate looked less than amused at the two of them.

"Whatever, Hank. You two are a great big bowl of sugar I can't even handle right now," Kate said, rolling her eyes.

####

"What the hell is that?"

"Will, what are you doing up?" Helen asked as he hobbled up beside her. She smiled slightly at the look of disgust on his face, though it disappeared as she saw how ill he looked. "It's the Ukoback. The poor thing died early this morning, though I'm not sure why."

She was in the process of removing its liver at that moment. The dull blue organ was the size and shape of a tennis ball. Helen was hoping that an autopsy on the tragic little creature might give her some clue as to what may have breached the network. She hypothesized that perhaps it had brought something in with it.

"You said they were emotionally fragile creatures," Will said.

"Yes, but the Big Guy was giving it extremely special care. He said it was doing splendidly considering the conditions - and then this morning its heart just stopped. I'm running tests," Helen said.

"You think this is all connected, don't you?" Will said. Helen pursed her lips, removing the kidneys next. She didn't know what to think, of course - but it seemed to her that everything was falling into place like dominoes. First Will had succumb to a virus that ought to have disappeared - he'd been the first case in over forty years. Then the security breach that had left no trace. Nikola just _happened_ to keep Eleanor alive. And now the Ukoback that had set all of it into motion died mysteriously.

"Will, you really need to be resting," Helen said.

"I'm feeling better now though. I can stand at least. Though my head feels like it's been thrown into a blender," Will said. Helen put a hand to his forehead and cheek, frowning.

"You're burning up. It means you've moved on to the second stage much more quickly than I expected," Helen said.

"Fantastic," Will said, sighing heavily. "Do you think maybe… Do you think Tesla really _did_ do this to me somehow? To force you into resuming the search for a cure?"

"I'd thought about it, but I really don't think so."

"Why not? It's so grandiose and ridiculous - it reeks of him. I mean who else would have the know how to get past Henry's protocols without a bit of inside knowledge? He's been here for weeks, scoping the place out. Hell, he used Henry's girlfriend's arrival time to _get_ Eleanor here in the first place. You can't say he doesn't think things through," Will said. "I just think maybe you -"

Will lost his balance then, in the heat of his anger, and nearly stumbled to the ground but Helen managed to steady him before it came to that.

"Sorry, just got a bit dizzy there for a moment," he said. Helen nodded, leading him to her cold metal swivel chair in front of the computer. She had half a mind to call up the Big Guy to force him back into bed, but he'd been there for a week already - she sympathized with his desire to be away from it. "What I was going to say was that _maybe_, just maybe you're not seeing Tesla for what he is anymore, you've always had a soft spot for him."

"I'm seeing Tesla for what he is far more clearly than you can, Will. You understand very little of this situation and certainly not enough to hold a useful objective opinion," Helen snapped. She knew that sometimes she was blinded by Nikola's charms. She cared for him, considered him her oldest friend - but she could see the excitement and wonder in his eyes when he thought of the possibilities Praxis might afford him. It was a reaction he wouldn't have had if he'd anticipated the outcome, and one he couldn't feign so accurately.

"I'm sorry, Will," she said.

"No, I get it. It's been an emotionally draining couple of days," Will said, tone sounding irritable.

"I'm sure Kate told you that Nikola and I are going to travel to Praxis tomorrow," Helen said.

"Yeah. You couldn't take Kate or the Big Guy with you, could you?" Will asked. Helen knew how wary he was of Nikola, and she supposed that was understandable - but in a way it was also fairly silly. By this time he ought to realize that Nikola didn't mean her any harm - though he might throw Kate or the Big Guy to the wolves if he needed to.

She gave him a look that said quite plainly he was being ridiculous. He sighed.

"So what's going on with that then?" Will said, motioning to the Ukoback.

"I haven't the faintest idea yet. I'm waiting on lab results to get back before I'll know more," Helen said.

"Well… keep me posted, I guess," Will said.

"I know you're feeling useless right now -"

"Understatement," Will replied.

"But we'll figure this out. In the meantime, if you're feeling up to it - there is plenty of filing you've been neglecting the past couple of months," Helen said, quite seriously. She would have preferred he rested, but if he was going to be up and about anyway, she may as well get something out of him. At least then he wouldn't be moping about underfoot.

"Magnus, this came for you," the Big Guy said, coming into the lab.

"Oh thank you, you can put it over there," Helen said.

"I think it's urgent," Biggie said, tapping the box with one of his overlarge fingers. It was a steel box, an odd sort of thing to be delivered. Helen frowned, and took it.

"Oh it's cold," she said. "Some sort of refrigerated unit? Who delivered this?"

"I don't know. I'll have Henry check the security feeds if you like," Big Guy said. Will got unsteadily to his feet and hovered over Helen. She snapped off her latex gloves and sat the box onto the desk beside her computer. She clicked the box open, and a fox of what must be dry ice or something similar sifted out. Inside was a small glass tube.

"Hand me those tongs, please, Will," Helen said, pointing to the ones just beside his elbow. "Thank you."

She lifted the tube out carefully, frowning as she peered inside.

"Is that a slug?" Will asked.

"It appears to be. Though not any species I'm aware of. Do you see the antennae? They're glowing pink," she said, studying the slug. The rest of it was brown and slimy, as a slug should be. She couldn't be certain without a mircroscope, but it appeared to be covered in a minutia of scaling as well.

"I sent it through the usual protocols, there isn't anything contagious about it," Big Guy assured her. Helen nodded gratefully and put the slug back into its container.

"There's a set of instructions here," Will said, lifting a small panel out of the box. Helen narrowed her eyes and took it from him carefully.

"This is a Bosilian shimmer slug which feeds on the Bosilica plant that grows in many of our sewers. It produces an anti-toxin which can be combined with a simple penicillin regimen to cure the Bosilica virus in a matter of days. Good luck," Helen read. "Love, father." Will's eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and relief. Biggie hit Will over the back of the head in a sort of congratulatory gesture, before helping to steady him.

Helen smiled, blinking back tears that she wasn't sure where they were coming from. She knew how many strings Gregory would have had to pull to get this to them.

"Thank you, father," she said in a hushed voice.

##

_More of a transition chapter, but things will definitely get interesting next chapter. Hope you're enjoying and I would love to hear your thoughts!_


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